Butt Heads: Want to know where your elected officials stand?

Want to know where your elected officials stand on smoke-free?

The RiverFrontTimes has thoughtfully compiled a concise guide to knowing your leaders’ positions, aptly titled “Butt Heads.” They polled about 291 elected officials and here’s what they came up with:

“Of those who spoke up, 54 percent are in favor of some form of smoking ban. Coming out against any sort of ban are 30 percent, while 16 percent say they are undecided or decline to reveal their stance.

A statewide ban would appear to have overwhelming backing from the local legislative delegation: 60 percent of the House members and 83 percent of the senators who responded to RFT profess support for a ban. (That the area delegation failed to carry the day in Jefferson City might coincide with a stark geographical component of statewide bans across the nation: Of the seventeen states that have not curtailed smoking, the vast majority are clustered south of the Mason-Dixon Line.)

St. Louis city officials, meanwhile, seem divided on the issue: 52 percent would say yes to a ban, 15 percent are against it and 33 percent are undecided or unwilling to comment.”